by Dr.Wornie Reed, Ph.D.
Director, Race and Social Policy, Virginia Tech
Why are Governor Youngkin of Virginia and other Republicans pushing the anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) boogeyman so hard?
CRT is one explanation of structural racism, especially laws’ part in maintaining that racism.
Several reasons for the outcry against it come to mind; however, let us a key on just two—politics and history. First, the opponents attacked CRT as a partisan political ploy. Much of the reaction was planned and implemented by a conservative activist, Christopher Rufo. By the time Rufo issued the following Tweet on March 15, 2021, the ruse was complete. “We have successfully frozen their brand—Critical Race Theory—into the public conversation and are steadily driving negative perceptions.”
Rufo continued, “The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘Critical Race Theory.’ Therefore, we have decoded the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”He was very successful in this devious endeavor, starting with President Trump endorsing it, followed by Republican governors and scores of other right-wing activists. Now it is just as Rufo designed it—a comprehensive boogeyman for political purposes (a la Youngkin)
Opposition to CRT is critically a denial of structural racism, a persistent aspect of White American culture.
It is also notable that the creation of CRT as a boogeyman occurred during the massive demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd when it looked like meaningful change might be in the air. But, as history has shown, something had to be done to halt that development. Opposition to CRT became a convenient tool for use in the preservation of false histories of America. On that score, Governor Youngkin and others are following in the footsteps of Senator Harry Byrd and his “Byrd Machine” in Virginia, which was a leader of the 1950s Southern Manifesto and the opposition to desegregation.
In editorials—on July 8-9, 2018—the Roanoke times recounted this part of the Byrd Machine history.
The newspaper reports that around 1950 Virginia’s oligarchs (the Byrd Machine) saw change coming that would mean trouble for them. President Harry Truman and the federal government started promoting civil rights, which threatened to undermine Southern policies and practices. To counter this possibility, the Byrd Machine created the Virginia History and Government Textbook Commission to oversee the production of three new textbooks—for fourth graders, seventh graders, and eleventh graders.
As a result, several generations of Virginians were effectively brainwashed into believing a fake version of history. Textbooks became state-sponsored propaganda indoctrinating Virginia students into opposing the civil rights movement.
Lawmakers thought that requiring schoolteachers to promote the Byrd organization’s view of history would set students straight and keep teachers from spreading socialist or communist ideas [like integration].
The Virginia textbooks on slavery: “It was not difficult for the Neg
roes to adjust to Virginia life. They had worked hard in Africa, so the work on the Virginia plantations did not hurt them. The Negroes learned also to enjoy the work and play of the plantation. It is true, of course, that life in early Virginia was not easy for the Negro. He liked Virginia, however, for the same reason that the white man liked it. Virginia offered a better life for the Englishmen than England did, and it offered a better life for the Negroes than did Africa.” An entire chapter is devoted to how well slaves were treated.
Virginia textbooks on secession: Virginia’s leaders were “statesmen” while Abraham Lincoln “threatened to invade Virginia and use force to interfere with the state’s own affairs. Then Virginia acted in
a manner worthy of the statesmen who in the past had defended her rights.” The constitutionality of secession gets scant attention.
Virginia textbooks on the civil war: Virginia “led her sister states of the South in the battle to preserve Southern homes, the Southern way of life, and the State’s rights under the Constitution.” There is nothing to suggest that “the Southern way of life” was based on slavery.
Currently, many states, even outside the South are dictating that students learn a flagrantly distorted history. There are massive attempts to preserve false histories and deny the existence of racism. Thus, as Yogi Berra reportedly said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
